[inaudible] thanks for joining us on former congressman tom davis. The book by Craig Shirley is an awardwinning author. This book a new gingrich i enjoyed the book, its an easy read. You learn a lot not just about new but the history i think we tend to forget memories are short. We still have a saying the public courtroom if there were five cabinet with four drawers the second drawer our needs good ideas. I think that was running jo joke. It was but he was the guy. So much of what he introduced to the public was a part of the organization lack of corruption and part of the ideas. Part of the was gingrich a part of that . It was very much pretrade as regular principles. In many ways the contract was a referendum on Ronald Reagan which was bill clinton. Everybody was confident in that context today, the media portrays the media be in one way but you offer nuance of being how he got into politics, to replace the people who are in power, tell us about his first race. He was a conservative, but he wasnt really, although he wrote in 19741 of the first articles advocating and challenging in the primaries. There is visionary of the time because nobody thought he was going to do it or that he had a chance of being in the primaries he came within an eyelash and a whisker of beating fords already thinking about politics in the future politics and revolutionary politics. He runs and 74 with the year after nixon resigns and the republicans got wiped out across the map 45 house seats, is just up and down the voting booth and he came within 6000 votes of defeating a longterm and covenant who is a good old southern democrat in georgia and it was quite remarkable. They had more name id and deeper roots in the district. He grew up in harrisburg and then teaching at westridge a college but even so his roots in georgia politics were pretty shallow at the time and 74 another district had part of suburban atlanta and they stretch all the way to the alabama border. We had to balance and also this is in the district so we had to consider that as for as the pitch suburban whitecollar business interest and then agriculture interest as well. Georgia was a oneparty say. Had not had a republican governor senator to that point. That somehow seats in the north atlantic suburbs flint was kind of a good old boy in the rural parts of the district. He was also a close ally of to put nails. He played his cards well and had deep roots constituent service was very well. He looked like he was there for as long as he wanted to be there until he announced his retirement 98. It was challenged and 76 and 78 but was token opposition. So tell us how did he come to win this seat that he never won before. He had run twice before he had a good establish name id and 74 he loses by 6000 votes out of 100 30,000 and two years later jimmy carter is the democratic nominee and again he carries flint across the finish line it was the normal victory for carter and 76. Of course we have that uphill fight as well and he loses by 6000 out of 101st watergate stops him and then the nomination of jimmy carter stops him it would drive anybody bonkers. He finally gets a good shot at it and 78 and we knew that was going to be problematic for him. And he had been in congress sense. So he finally resigns of the democrats nominated popular state senator who runs a Good Campaign but in 78 is somewhat of a republican near when the republicans picked up three seats in the house 15 or 20 in the house and one of them was gingrichs see. So he retires considers two close races. When the republicans did feel that he is winning 85 15. Gingrich is the first serious challenger he ever had. Talk to me about his strategy. He had a groups the later on with think talk to me about the coalition. Jaclyn was democrat but jim crow. For instance there is a local congressman at the time who were not to be carters ambassador to the un jaclyn would not sit down we had adjoining districts and jack would not sit down and have breakfast with andrea meanwhile, gingrich has part of the atlantic daily which is part of the newspaper his campaigning and black districts and in the churches. He has widespread support among the black community in georgia in 1970. Something no one thought republicans could do he was very much welcomed into the black community. And he also had some waiver dorsum its no, he did not fill out the questionnaire exactly but we did have some Airline Pilots who endorsed him and 78. The coalition that elected over time changed. Yes but it was interesting there was a precursor to the lincoln coalition. He had heavy so pope from the union in 1978 that reagan had an 80 and 84. Reagan did not get the support from the Africanamerican Community that gingrich got but not for lack of trying. Reagan was endorsed by williams and other leaders so that gingrich wins and 78 comes to washington and the groups that supported him were not necessarily republican groups. What did he do to keep these groups in line . There were environmental groups that supported him there is no conservative organization to speak of in georgia was a vibrant the way it was today is basically a letterhead organization so you had to have your own organization. Had the depend on the Coalition Support of various groups. The environmentalists were important to him so legislation, meetings he kept the door open to the more reasonable environmental organizations and compared to his predecessor was pretty welcome was the first one to call for Martin Luther king jr. Holiday when the Reagan Administration was slow going with that idea as where a lot of republicans were slow it was more jack kemp. You also looked at the book for medical marijuana think people looking at new today they pitch wouldve looked at the freshman legislative. I think he reached the point where no doubt he started off as a rockefeller republican and he supported rockefeller in 1968. It evolved over time because they see liberals and its not working. Good intentions and good ideas but doesnt work practically in the governmental sense. So he evolves and the antiestablishment he stood up against the apartheid government he voted for the 85 Civil Rights Act and got a lot of grief for the it was a pretty white district at that point. He this is where the image today we would not recognize it. Thats partially why wrote the book. I think he would say yes i did those things why wouldnt i do those things. Of course i be opposed to the communist government in nicaragua. This has a lot of history were talking before hand about how when donald trump met with but they put a note to jim right and daniel are tag a was actually undermining the foreign policy. A complete violation of the logan act. So he comes to the house and is part of a backbencher i think it was called the redneck row,. To think at the time anybody wouldve spotted him. I think if you people saw him the potential for leadership but the washington was different i think there is more of an appreciation for revolutionaries and anti status quo politicians even after watergate. When i talk about the polarization in washington its much worse thats not the republicans fault, so they blame it on gingrich, they say it started with gingrich but discuss that a little bit. If you go back back in the 30s, 50s and 60s there were liberal republicans and democrats. There is an overlap between the two parties we could compromise more easily than we can today. We say is ideologically sorted but what happens is the Political Parties operated in a state of equilibrium. When they met their National Convention the democrats nominated a liberal that to unify the party together. Eisenhower, the moderate nixon the moderate lobs the moderate. Kennedy the moderate takes lbj the conservator forget the voting records, this all changes so they operate in the state of equilibrium when goldwater is the nominee of the Republican Party logic says they should pick rockefeller Something Like that as his running mates unify the party to win the election against lbj in the fall the goldwater rejects that theory so now its all conservative they begin the process of driving liberal republicans out of party. It also begins the process of attracting conservative democrats. So john conley joined the Republican Party and it begins the process of a different dynamic to southern voting. So they drove a lot of the establishment with the democrats. We saw that when they hear a bird was a democrat anymore. That they start the process and continued up until today. So there are very few liberal republicans in the party a few conservative democrats in the party. That you saw something else, so like reagan there some conservatives and democrats in their animated by populist issues which is anti big corporation, which is why you can have a liberal populace and they can be antigovernment house that met when its comes up initially, how does the leadership view this new guy the happy to have the vote but hes uncontrollable in the Bush White House this despised him they supported matt again who was from illinois and gingrich defeats and by one vote in the Bush White House theyre not can carry water for the Bush White House which is very much his own man but they talk about Fried Chicken versus filet mignon. Explain that. Theres a cultural difference between the two. Gingrich wasnt from georgia but he quickly assimilated from the to see how easily he moves within that culture and bush was of a different era and culture trumps ideology and Party Everything is about where you come from and what you represe represent. So reagan gets elected and he still doesnt carry georgia in 1980. It was a tough year for republicans but he starts to establish himself as a force of the house, gets a following the people hes meeting with. Check cam, nick cheney that theres some real antiestablishment going in the house. These are people tired of being a minority the democrats were looking everyday with the house bank and post office they pretty much loitered over it they could get their bills in order and it wasnt for ideological purposes so you see this first opening on the gym right. Is Charlie Lewis a long time democrat from detroit who is taking kickbacks from the staff he was hired on a certain pay scale and then the congressmen get cash out of their own pay. This became public and gingrich started going after him even before it takes office and 79. He achieves a little bit of a National Platform and 78 because he established himself with an interesting candidate of the future. Hes quotable and can be very charismatic their taking note of this because hes someone who can be a troublemaker or leader in the future. So outside platform for someone who is just elected a National Media following he eventually forces the resignation and then he moves on to freddie st. Germain who is chairman of the House Banking Committee who is using it at his own piggy bank i was getting illicit money from the banks who supposed to regulate. He starts the drumbeat after sty forces him off office. Some of these had jail time too. And now having upset the institution they all despise him for it could seize doing just the opposite hes upsetting everybody and they want to take them out and beat him anything they can do to stop his momentum now hes trying support among the congress at least Media Coverage so when i was in the house he was articulate number in command of the subject, selfconfident having a gift in that respect, was he always that way. From the time he was a kid he once persuaded the mayor of harrisburg to build a zoo in harrisburg. It was a public city. So i think he had a gift for speech. There might be several classes a day say really hone those skills so he took that is on cspan the opportunity to reach a wider so Cable Television is prominent today. It was before cnn and just pockets of cable here and there but mostly reruns of i love lucy and Andy Griffith there is no talk radio and cspan. He quickly realizes the potency of given special orders every afternoon because then they are putting all the cable into 100,000 homes around the country. Dick army used in go on about it and gingrich would say would you go with an audience and give a speech to hundred thousand people set of course thats what youre doing. He quickly becomes a cult and is getting 700 letters a week from people around the country to this Junior Member from georgia is already achieving a national party. Your wet it can be in one of the first with an email account its almost the cutting edge of technology. It was the futurist, but he had that relationship and understanding the way things were going. I think you guys had an interest in ideas of future society and things like that i can keep up with it hed start going off on tangents about these other subjects. Those members were looking at a more global perspective i dont think democrats understood how until it was too late,. Is a very deep appreciation of the american revolution. At the end of the revolution he was one of the important founders and same framers who wrote a letter and he said the revolution is over but the war goes on. When i asked a set of course the government must be challenged. Rather people would say what is that mean he knew what it meant when i quoted it to him. So he gets a couple of heads on the mental and then the biggest fish of all. Jim wright was a very powerful, vindictive speaker and people were generally afraid of him and he knew how to use power. He challenge the president himself, Ronald Reagan who in his diaries normally wouldnt express too much concern or political opponent but even reagan in his diary called jim wright a storm trooper. Jim was so relentlessly partisan. He was also to a lot of no good in texas. Isnt it shady oil deals and book deals when there is on believable amounts of money for a book that nobody wanted or purchased. Accept Interest Groups yes. And this is what first opened up a gave gingrich the ultimate to go in and use investigation powers he had to find out the shady things that they were involved in. This was over several months it took place over six or nine months. But he didnt have a gavel or investigative staff. Yes in the press and other people who were bitter political enemies were leaking stuff to him. A lot of people were happy to see. [inaudible] s illustrated book deals was that right is now democrats go to the investigation and this is just earth shattering. You remember at the time the resignation was broadcast live on all three so this is big medicine he resigns but its all due to gingrichs unrelenting pursuit of him. But the revenges long. So he become speaker and hes theres hundreds of complaints in the end up getting him on one and it was really kinda silly, he made an allusion to a fundraising appeal and kissinger was going to be down in georgia given a speech so they asked to meet with some high dollar rollers and that was the one violation so we ended up paying a fine remand lawyer fees and Everything Else but he was really taken a lot of hits so how difficult was it to go after right at first . There are all too scared the speaker of the house was known to be in a vindictive individual. But as he Gains Momentum more facts come out like everything in washington everything is a coward until the end ten and theyre starting to put their flake so bush comes in with cerise taxes but it was more than that. His signature issue in 1988 was read my lips, no taxes, so he violated his own pledge. He did not get most republicans to go along with him. The vote went down and an 88 he said read my lips no new taxes on by 91 hes proposing new taxes. Now they have republicans like ed Rollins Gingrich and others in trent lott are basically urging bush to find another way to find more sources of revenue. We cant violate your own Campaign Pledge but he does a very openly. Yes, he holds a precious conference. Then all the National Medias there catching him jogging and a reporter says the whole gaggle of the press corps was there and asked what about read my lips and he said read my hips and knees making the mockery out of the pledge to the american people. What perspective do you think this had . It created and divided the publican party. I think its the best biography i think written about it. Its historical in context. Its an easy read by the way. News sees that when dick cheney gets appointed to secretary of defense that opens up a whip spot. And tell us about that. Paul hadnt testified in the senate against john towers nomination, he would became secretary of defense. He would estate is whip and gingrich wouldve just been a member of the conference. Towers voted down in the senate to be secretary defense a bush looks around and cheneys qualified and a good nominee. So good antidote to what went on with tower. He nominates dick cheney which opens the whip position. New to had always thought about being speaker of the house but the path forward was murky. Cheney was very popular. You want to be in cheney. No. There was a question of cheney wouldve been speaker and 94. Wouldve he created the political conditions that led to the contract . Like all historical figures its persistence. How many people run three times . And also a little bit of luck. Luck, and a belief in his own ability to lead. Last thing they want is newt gingrich. Especially when he says im willing to be the republican in the house. Theres never good relations between that and the Bush White House anyway. John is on the chief of staff made it even worse. They did not help the cause on capitol hill are the house. At one point there ban from going to capitol hill because every time they went their new enemies were created. Theres a very Selective School in the south. It was on economic policy. I never read it its one